Or grief unknowne, which he could not difcerne :
So left he her withouten remedie.

Then gan her heart to faint, and quake, and earne,
And inly troubled was the truth to learne.
Unto himselfe fhe came, and him befought,
Now with faire fpeeches, now with threatnings fterne,
If ought lay hidden in his grieved thought,

It to reveale: who ftill her answered, there was nought. 25.

Nathleffe fhe refted not fo fatisfide;

But leaving watry gods, as booting nought,
Unto the shinie heaven in hafte she hide,
And thence Apollo, King of Leaches, brought.
Apollo came; who, foone as he had fought
Through his disease, did by and by out find
That he did languifh of fome inward thought,
The which afflicted his engrieved mind;

Which love he red to be, that leads each living kind. 26.

Which when he had unto his mother told,
She gan thereat to fret and greatly grieve;
And, comming to her fonne, gan firft to fcold
And chyde at him that made her misbelieve:
But afterwards fhe gan him foft to fhrieve,*
And wooe with fair intreatie, to disclose

Which of the Nymphes his heart fo fore did mieve;
For fure fhe weend it was fome one of those,
Which he had lately feene, that for his love he chose.

* fhe gan him foft to fhrieve.] To treat him as one at confeffion. CHURCH. A. S. ferifan, which is supposed to be derived from the Lat. fcribere, because the penance was originally put in writing: the words fbrive and fhrift were in most common use. C.

1 fo fore did mieve.] For move, under compulfion of the rhyme. It is fometimes fpelt meve; but here, as in the cafe of " fhrieve" for forive, Spenfer wished that the eye as well as the ear of the reader fhould be fatisfied. C.

27.

Now leffe fhe feared that fame fatall read,
That warned him of womens love beware,
Which being ment of mortall creatures fead,
For love of Nymphes she thought fhe need not care,
But promist him, what ever wight she weare,
That she her love to him would shortly gaine.
So he her told; but foone as she did heare
That Florimell it was which wrought his paine,
She gan afresh to chafe, and grieve in every vaine.

28.

Yet fince she saw the ftreight extremitie,

In which his life unluckily was layd,
It was no time to scan the prophecie,
Whether old Proteus true or falfe had fayd,
That his decay should happen by a mayd:
It's late in death of daunger to advize,
Or love forbid him, that is life denayd;

But rather gan in troubled mind devize
How the that Ladies libertie might enterprize.

29.

To Proteus felfe to few fhe thought it vaine,
Who was the root and worker of her woe,
Nor unto any meaner to complaine;
But unto great king Neptune felfe did goe,
And on her knee before him falling lowe,
Made humble fuit unto his Majestie

To graunt to her her fonnes life, which his foe,
A cruell Tyrant, had prefumpteouflie

By wicked doome condemn'd a wretched death to die.

30.

To whom God Neptune, foftly fmyling, thus:

"Daughter, me feemes of double wrong ye plaine, Gainst one that hath both wronged you and us; For death t' adward I ween'd did appertaine

To none but to the feas fole Soveraine.

Read therefore who it is which this hath wrought,
And for what caufe: the truth discover plaine,

For never wight fo evill did or thought,

But would fome rightfull caufe pretend, though rightly nought."

31.

To whom she anfwer'd: "Then, it is by name
Proteus, that hath ordayn'd my fonne to die;
For that a waift," the which by fortune came
Upon your feas, he claym'd as propertie :
And yet nor his, nor his in equitie,
But yours the waift by high prerogative.
Therefore I humbly crave your Majestie
It to replevie, and my fonne reprive.
So fhall you by one gift fave all us three alive."

32.

He graunted it; and ftreight his warrant made,
Under the Sea-god's feale autenticall,
Commaunding Proteus ftraight t' enlarge the mayd,
Which wandring on his feas imperiall

He lately tooke, and fithence kept as thrall.
Which the receiving with meete thankefulnesse,
Departed ftraight to Proteus therewithall;
Who, reading it with inward loathfulnesse,
Was grieved to restore the pledge he did poffeffe.

33.

Yet durft he not the warrant to withstand,

But unto her delivered Florimell:

Whom she receiving by the lilly hand,

For that a waift.] Spenfer here uses "waift" in its legal sense, and makes the mother of Marinell acquainted with the law of replevin, by which a party might reclaim upon pledges what he had been unjustly deprived of. A" waift" is anything found aftray, which appears to be the property of no man. See "wefte" used as a verb, vol. ii. p. 416, and as a substantive, this vol. p. 33. C.

Admyr'd her beautie much, as fhe mote well,
For fhe all living creatures did excell;
And was right joyous that she gotten had
So faire a wife for her fonne Marinell.

So home with her she ftreight the virgin lad, And shewed her to him, then being sore bestad. 34.

Who foone as he beheld that angels face

Adorn'd with all divine perfection,

His cheared heart eftfoones away gan chace Sad death, revived with her sweet inspection, And feeble spirit inly felt refection: As withered weed through cruell winters tine," That feeles the warmth of funny beames reflection, Liftes up his head that did before decline, And gins to fpread his leafe before the faire funshine. 35.

Right fo himselfe did Marinell upreare,

When he in place his dearest love did spy;
And though his limbs could not his bodie beare,

Ne former ftrength returne fo fuddenly,

Yet chearefull fignes he fhewed outwardly.
Ne leffe was fhe in fecret hart affected,
But that she masked it with modestie,

For feare she should of lightnesse be detected:
Which to another place I leave to be perfected.

n As withered weed through cruell winters tine, &c.] Winter's tine, or teen [meaning winter's fuffering or infliction], is Chaucer's expreffion. See note on F. Q. iv. iii. 23 [this vol. p. 131]. This fimile is common among the poets, and very near the fame as in F. Q. v. xii. 13. Compare Statius, Theb. vii. 223, Buchan. Epigr. L. i. Ariosto, C. xxiii. 67, and C. xxxii. 108, Taffo, C. xviii. 16. See alfo Dante "Inferno," Canto ii. UPTON.

O oft as I with state of present time

The image of the antique world com

pare,

When as mans age was in his freshest

prime,

And the first bloffome of faire vertue bare;

Such oddes I finde twixt thofe, and these which are,
As that, through long continuance of his course,
Me feemes the world is runne quite out of fquare
From the first point of his appointed fourse;

And being once amiffe growes daily wourfe and wourse:

2.

For from the golden age, that firft was named,

It's now at earft become a ftonie one;

And men themselves, the which at firft were framed

a At eart.] That is, at length. So the quarto and first folio read. So Chaucer, edit. Urr. p. 104:

"And then at erst amongis 'hem thei faye."

The fecond and third folios read "as earft." CHURCH. At laft for "at earft" would not have been an unprecedented mifprint; but the meaning is nearly the fame. "As earft" would be, as formerly. C.